186 Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913-18 



frequently forbid all sewing the day after they have held their seances, and tell 

 the people it is taboo, ag'enangman, and that they will die if they disobey; but 

 if the particular shaman be a man of little repute the women will often disregard 

 his command and sew as usual. There seems to be a tendency, indeed, among 

 the Copper Eskimos to limit restrictions and taboos as far as possible; they 

 say themselves that they do many things now that were forbidden in former 

 days. Certainly they have no such intricate and far-reaching system of taboo 

 as Mr. Stefansson describes, however true his remarks may be of the natives 

 farther west. 



The supernatural agencies with which the Copper Eskimo has to reckon 

 are not confined to the shades of men and animals, tarrait. Over and above 

 these are the tornrait, spirits that never had a normal life like human beings, 

 though they are semi-human in their form. They live in isolation, as a rule, 

 though divided into male and female. Whether they intermarry or not, and 

 have children, the native never thinks of enquiring, and opinions even differ as 

 to whether they can die. The shamans often assert that they cause them 

 bodily harm, and sometimes claim to have killed one, but certain spirits at least 

 the natives maintain it is impossible to kill. At times some little peculiarity 

 in their appearance distinguishes them from human beings, for example, extra- 

 ordinarily long hair; but they can change their forms and appear or disappear at 

 will. Some have definite homes in hillocks or in tide-cracks or in old stone 

 houses, but they are not altogether confined to these places; on the contrary, 

 they are as free as other spirits to roam wherever they will. 



The natives say that the shades of the dead, inyuin tarrait, often become 

 spirits, tornrait, and in fact malignant shades that work the Eskimos harm are 

 often called by this name.' The machinations of evil shades or spirits, aggiok- 

 tun, is the explanation of every untoward circumstance and of every inexplicable 

 phenomenon, whether it be sickness or stormy weather, an unaccountable soxmd 

 or the movement of the compass needle. Mannigyorina, for example, had 

 difficulty in her delivery, and the people said, "The shades of the dead are angry." 

 Kanneyuk again heard a strange noise one day when she was inside her hut, 

 and she rushed out crying, "Evil shades"; similarly, on another occasion, 

 Higilak, who heard a sound as of something scratching on a skin while she was 

 cooking outside her tent, whispered apprehensively, "Surely aggioktun." The 

 men are as credulous as the women. Thus Avranna heard a whistle one day 

 when he was leaving our station^. He knew it could not have issued from either 

 of the two men who were there at the time, but thought there might be some one 

 in one of the tents. However, as no one had ever been seen living in the tents 

 he concluded with the other natives that it must have been a spirit haunting 

 the station. The Eskimos believed that there was a spirit, tornrak, in the 

 electric battery, and another in the phonograph. I induced a man to sing 

 into the phonograph one evening, then changed the needle and reproduced his 

 song. He was greatly alarmed, and asked whether some spirit were not boxed 

 up in the machine. We told him to look down the horn and see for himself. 

 Sure enough, he asserted he could see the spirit that had reproduced his song, 

 a diminutive being like a man, but only about an inch and a half high. When 

 a woman's voice was reproduced the spirit he saw resembled a woman, and 

 when his little boy's song was played over for him he saw the figure of a httle 

 boy. Several other Eskimos could see the same spirits when they looked down 

 the horn, but, curiously enough, the man's wife was the one sceptic in the party. 



Spirits, tornrait, are liable to be encountered everywhere. They are especial- 

 ly dangerous in solitary places, and to natives wandering alone in the 'dark. 

 A woman who had to take the usual portion of food one evening over to a house 

 some thirty yards away ran the whole distance for fear of spirits. It is partly 



'This belief exists also at Barrow, in North Alaska. 



^Copper Eskimos never whistle, except to signal when hunting. 



